…ment

Friends and collaborators from …ment, new online journal on contemporary art, culture and politics, have released their first issue ‘Welfare Statement’. This first issue explores recent debates on the crisis of the welfare state and related issues. Contributors include Franco Bifo Berardi, Markus Miessen, Margit Mayer, DOXA, Patrick Coyle, The Public School, amongst others. Whilst the journal primarily operates online, a beautiful risograph print limited edition of 150, featuring a contribution fromElmgreen & Dragset, is available from various art bookshops in Berlin and shortly in London.

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What do the commons mean for us today, in the face of mass cuts to public services, education and the arts, threats of emerging modes of governance via intellectual property law in the digital domain and new narratives of the Big Society in the UK? How can we approach a new protocol for the commons under such circumstances? AMASS (derived from the verb, ‘to amass’) is an open platform for roundtable discussions exploring new models and practices for sustaining the commons today, and constructive dialogue and collective thinking about ways for developing and sustaining of our public spaces, cultural community and shared knowledge resources. We wish to bring together individuals and groups in order to explore, within a common space, new possibilities and introduce new perspectives on culture locally and abroad.

AMASS invites collectives, groups and individuals working within the cultural sector and the creative industries to contribute their experiences of exploring practices of mutual aid, pooled knowledge, networked infrastructures and different modes of self-organisation. These case studies can be drawn from personal experience, local knowledge from various sectors, other geographical locations, or history. We wish to investigate and discuss our strategies, successes and failures and engage in a process of sharing and learning from each other. Following the event, all materials will be collated into an open online archive of common research.

We welcome case studies concerning organisations, projects and initiatives from cooperatives, autonomist groups, gift economies, open source projects, new pedagogical models and others. Those who cannot attend, but would like to contribute, can email their submissions, which will be read and discussed during the event. Please email us with a brief description, location, comments, links, and your name/contact details to: info@doxacollective.org

AMASS brings together:

DOXA, an international research collective that seeks to explore new possibilities for supporting and developing culture in times of global crisis and change. More: http://www.doxacollective.org

The Amateurist Network, a network of artists and practitioners based in London that seek to explore issues within the conditions of cultural work, precarious labour and informal modes of self-organisation. More: http://amateuristnetwork.wordpress.com

…ment, a new quarterly online journal for contemporary culture, art and politics based in London and Berlin. More: http://www.journalment.org

Anthony Iles, a writer and editor based in London. He is a contributing editor to online and quarterly print magazine, Mute. See: http://metamute.org

The event is supported by Openvizor, an international organisation and platform that initiates and supports critical exchange of ideas in arts and cultural practice and the active development by practitioners of partnerships and projects around the world that engage people, places and the forces of change from the ground up. More: http://www.openvizor.com